Canada will face Mexico for Olympic soccer berth

The Canadian men’s under-23 soccer team will play Mexico in Kansas City on Saturday with an Olympic berth in the balance.

The Mexicans clinched top spot in Group B in the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament on Tuesday. Canada went undefeated in Group A with a win and two ties and finished second to El Salvador.

Mexico and Canada will play in one of the semi-finals, but since the federation gets two Olympic berths, the semi takes on more importance than the tournament final. El Salvador and Honduras will play in the other semi.

The Canadian men have participated in three previous Olympics — in 1904, 1976 and 1984. Canada won the gold medal in 1904 but two separate American entries provided the only opposition at the St. Louis Games.

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Canada got into the 1976 Montreal Games as the host country and qualified for the 1984 Los Angeles Games, but CONCACAF was afforded an extra spot that year as the Americans were the hosts.

Canada lost to the United States in the semi-finals in the qualification tournament leading up to the 2008 Olympics, missing out on a berth.

Canada had the chance to do itself a favour on Monday night with a win over Cuba in its final round-robin game, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw. A victory would have given the Canadians first in their pool and avoided a semi-final date with the powerhouse Mexicans

Mexico missed out on the 2008 Olympics after failing to qualify and has never won a medal in eight previous appearances at the Games.

Canadian head coach Tony Fonseca said his team played a price for its youth by letting a late 1-0 slip away when it allowed Cuba to score the equalizer in the 90th minute.